NEW CASTLE — Hancock County entered Saturday’s New Castle Semi-State with 21 potential bids for the IHSAA Boys Wrestling State Finals.
Highlighted by state finals returners, new faces and people finally punching their long-awaited ticket, all four county schools will have representation at this year’s tournament in Evansville.
New Palestine led the way with four qualifiers, Mt. Vernon and Greenfield-Central each had two, and Eastern Hancock had one.
The Dragons had the highest team finish placing fourth with 82 points, the Cougars placed 12th, the Marauders placed 14th and the Royals finished in 17th.
Warren Central won the team title with a score of 148.5 points and was followed up by Indianapolis Cathedral (124.5) and Roncalli (96).
Of the nine wrestlers to punch their ticket, four are making their return to the state finals. New Palestine’s Gunner Butt and Bryce Doss, and Mt. Vernon’s Eli Broady and Devin Kendrex all secured their spot in the bracket again, while the Dragons Cole Vandygriff and Colin Whetsel, Greenfield-Central’s Silas Frye and Jett McGuire and Eastern Hancock’s Bradyn Volz all punched their ticket for the first time.
For the Dragons, Butt and Doss qualified last season with second and first-place semi-state finishes, respectively. This time around, it was Butt taking home the semi-state title.
“The key was just focusing on those first two matches. I just trusted my coach. We were working on Sunday just hand fighting and pushing me and that showed in the finals,” Butt said. “Last week I wasn’t at my full potential and this week I feel like I wrestled great and that showed.”
At 126 pounds, Butt secured his state finals spot with wins by fall in his first two matches, before a 5-0 win by decision in the semifinals set him up with a rematch of last week’s regional championship against county rival Broady.
Last week, Butt lost to Mt. Vernon’s Broady 3-2 in the championship match, and earlier in the season he fell 6-4 in a dual meet.
This time around, he went on the attack early and grabbed a 7-3 victory.
“I think the difference this time was that he was a little more aggressive early on. He put some pressure on him, and just fell into some good positions,” New Palestine head coach Andrew Frey said. “Gunner had a really good day and kind of kept that momentum from early on all the way to the end.”
Broady, who used his defense to win last week’s matchup, struggled to fight back from an early deficit but still punched his ticket to state for the second straight season.
“He [Broady] got caught in a cradle early and got down. Just a weird thing that happened, and with two guys at that level, one little mistake can make the difference,” Mt. Vernon head coach Randal Hayes said. “They could wrestle five times and have five different outcomes.”
New Palestine’s Doss won his first two matches at 144 pounds to secure his spot for the second straight season before falling in the semifinals to Cathedral’s Dillon Graham by decision 3-1. He bounced back with a 4-3 win over Southmont’s Marlin Williams in the third-place match.
Mt. Vernon’s Kendrex was the final wrestler to secure his return ticket with a fourth-place finish at 215 pounds. He won his first two matches easily by major decision and fall before losing 11-8 to Southmont’s Wyatt Woodall in the semifinals.
“That was one that I’ve had on my radar all year because they’re both similar in the style that they wrestle,” Hayes said. “Woodall was just a little too big for him I think. Some of the stuff that normally works just didn’t work against him.”
Last year, Kendrex was the semi-state runner-up in an overtime loss to Lawrence North’s Brandon Johnson. This year, the two wrestled in the consolation finals.
“They [Kendrex and Broady] set that goal early that they were going to get back there. They’ve worked really hard and they’re the type of kids that we want to keep showing that example of what it takes to get to the state tournament multiple times. I’m super proud of them,” Hayes said. “They didn’t come out the way they wanted to today but they handled it with class and they’re already ready to get back in the room and get ready for next week.”
Punching their state finals ticket for the first time after tough first-round losses last year were Greenfield-Central’s Frye and New Palestine’s Vandygriff.
Frye, in the 175-pound weight class, pinned his first two opponents to qualify for state. After a fourth-place finish in the regional, Frye matched that performance in a tougher field.
“It’s just being ready and believing in yourself. I think with this team as good as they are and the things that they’ve done this season, they still have some self-doubt. I use Warren Central as an example where they come in and they’re like ‘we’re going to beat you and take your pride.’ I’m not sure we have a lot of that, but we’re getting there and Silas had that today,” Greenfield-Central head coach Josh Holden said. “He came in like ‘I want to go to state and I’m going to beat two people.’ That’s a tough weight class so to be coming out as a four seed is pretty good.”
To punch his ticket to state, Vandygriff not only overcame the hurdle of last season’s loss, he overcame an opponent he had lost to twice this season, Eastern Hancock’s Cameron Volz.
In the 132-pound quarterfinals, Vandygriff won the county matchup with a pin over Volz in the third period.
Another win by fall in the semis placed him against the No. 2 ranked wrestler in the class, New Castle’s undefeated defending state champion Tylin Thrine, in the final where he fell by decision 12-5.
“Cole finally got over the hump. Last year he was the favorite and fell short. He mentally got over those humps and wrestled extremely well,” Frey said. “I thought he did really well today and that was awesome to see.”
After winning last year’s sectional, Greenfield-Central’s Jett McGuire’s season ended after missing weight at the regional. This time, he got to wrestle and made the most of it.
“This is the best he’s been wrestling,” Holden said. “I told the whole crew that I can look in your eyes and tell if you’re ready, and he just had that look in his eyes that was like ‘I’m going to go out there and beat some people.’”
At 120 pounds, he won his first two matches by first-period falls. He won by decision 5-2 in the semis and dropped a controversial championship to Fisher’s Chayce Yant by decision 3-2.
A stalling call in the closing seconds seemed to tie the match at 3-3, but after a complaint by the Fishers coach and a meeting between the referees, the tying point was taken off of the board.
“That’s something that’s not supposed to happen, but it’s over now and we’ll deal with it,” Holden said. “You don’t know what the draw is going to be. Just because you didn’t win doesn’t mean you’re going to get a bad draw. You go and beat four people next week and this call doesn’t matter.”
At 113 pounds, Eastern Hancock freshman Bradyn Volz qualified for state in his first try with a last-second win over the reigning 106-pound New Castle Semi-State champion Hruai Lian from Perry Meridian.
Down 4-3 in the final seconds, Volz took down Lian and gained control to secure the go-ahead two points as the time expired.
He went on to place second, losing to Roncalli’s Blake Getz in the championship.
The final state qualifier from the county used a good draw to secure his spot. After a third-place finish at the regional last week, New Palestine’s Whetsel won by sudden victory in the ticket round to advance at 190.
“Whetsel just took advantage of a good draw. You never know what you’re going to get here and the day that we saw his draw we knew he could be a state qualifier,” Frey said. “Wrestling hard is pretty much the only way he knows and that’s what he did.”
Mt. Vernon’s Connor Bayliss (113), Eastern Hancock’s Zane Badgley (126) and Dominic Shelby (165) Greenfield-Central’s Nate Miller (144), Clay Guenin (190), Tristen Lanum (215) and Brayden Flener (285) and New Palestine’s Peyton Hornsby (138), Jaedyn Jeffries (157), Gabe Flick (165) and Shaun Glass (215) all dropped one of their first two matches.
The nine qualifiers will wrestle first-round matches Friday beginning at 2 p.m. CT. The quarterfinals and semifinals will take place Saturday beginning at 9 a.m. with the consolation matches beginning at 4:30 p.m. and the finals at 7:30 p.m. All matches will be held at the Ford Center.
